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Why does White move first in chess?

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A chessboard showing the standard starting position for a game, with white and black pieces arranged in two rows on each side: rooks, knights, bishops, queen, and king on the back row, and pawns in front. — chess Position of chess pieces at the beginning of a game. The pieces are placed on the two ranks closest to the player. In the closest rank, pieces are arranged from left to right: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, and rook. In front of that rank, each square has a pawn.

In the context of Western chess, the rules state that White moves first, after which players alternate turns. While this is the established standard for the game, the historical records do not provide a specific reason or origin for why White was designated to move first.1

It is worth noting that this convention is not universal across all variants of the game. For example, in Chinese chess, the side traditionally represented by the color red moves first.2